Chechen soccer club signs player with cancer

Chechnya's President Ramzan Kadyrov (L) and football players of Terek, Grozny. Source: Said Tcarnaev

A soccer club from Chechnya has signed a player with cancer in order to give him the opportunity of treatment abroad. Fans and professionals alike teamed up to raise money for Grigory Simonyan in a campaign before Chechen President Kadyrov stepped in.

A soccer club from Chechnya has signed a
player with cancer in order to give him the opportunity of treatment abroad.
Grigory Simonyan, who has brain cancer, has signed a contract with Russian
Premier League club Terek Grozny after Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov became
aware of his plight, and will now fly to Germany for treatment at the club’s
expense.

A call to action

Simonyan’s plight was first drawn to public
attention by Russian sports journalist Katerina Kirilcheva, as a result of
which a charity campaign was set up to raise money for the soccer player’s
treatment. The campaign, called Save Grisha (Grigory), was launched by Russian
sports website Championat.com and the Orange Sky charity foundation.

The red Save Grisha post was on the website’s
main page for about one and a half months. Twice daily information was
published on how to transfer donations, and how much money had been collected
so far.

The response to Save Grisha turned out to be
enormous – almost 100,000 people transferred money into the campaign account.
While many donated between 30 and 300 rubles (from $1 to $10), some gave
100,000 rubles ($2,850) and 200,000 rubles ($5,700), and one person even
donated 500,000 rubles ($14,200). On top of this, School No. 258, where he
studied, collected 100,000 rubles, and 200,000 rubles was raised at a special
charity concert.

There is little doubt that it would have been
possible to reach the target sum for Simonyan to receive treatment abroad –
5,000,000 rubles ($142,800). But in the end it proved unnecessary. Chechen
President Ramzan Kadyrov, who is also honorary president of FC Terek Grozny,
the region’s most successful soccer club, became aware of the player’s sickness
and told the club to sign the player and pay for his treatment.

According to Samvel Avakian, Championat.com’s
soccer editor, 3.3 million rubles ($94,000) had already been raised for
Simonyan when Kadyrov stepped in. “This is not a figure deliberately chosen to
look good, but the amount which had been accumulated in a special account at
the time when Terek decided to pay for Simonyan’s treatment and the soccer
club’s managers asked us to stop raising money," says Avakian.

Support from the soccer community

"We did not have enough time to have all
our ideas realized,” says Avakian. “We were supposed to hold a charity auction
on March 29 or 30, which we had organized with soccer player Alexander
Samedov's wife Yulia. We had agreements with many players from the Russian
Premier League, the Italian Serie A and with players from the Spanish Primera
Liga – they sent us their shirts so that we could sell them at an auction and
raise funds for Grisha.”

Avakian explains that many players based
outside the country donated to the campaign, including PSG midfielder Javier
Pastore and Inter Milan star Ricardo Alvarez. Some players – Dinamo Moscow
player Leandro Fernandez, Russian international Roman Shirokov and many others
- also sent shirts.

“We did not ask the sportsmen for money
because we know that, being wealthy, they are constantly faced with such
requests,” says Avakian. “However, this does not mean that after transferring
the shirts, the players didn't sent money to Grisha’s account. It’s just that
we do not know about this. For example, it took us a long time to persuade the
Russian soccer player Alexander Ryazantsev to write about his donation.
Everyone wants to help but they fear that it will be taken for a PR
stunt."

Ramzan Kadyrov, who tweeted that the
republic’s soccer club Terek would sign a contract with Simonyan and cover the
cost of his treatment, could have simply transferred the required amount into
the charity account. But a professional contract gives the young man something no
less important than the money for treatment – it gives him something to fight
for and inspire him.

Collision with a goalpost

It was an incident on the soccer pitch 3-4
years ago that is believed to have led to the tumor developing in Simonyan’s
brain. It is assumed that the cause was a blow to the head resulting from a
collision with a goalpost, though Simonyan’s father Vardan does not remember
the exact date of the incident.

"Grisha has never played anything in his
life except soccer,” says his father. “The boy grew up to be very technical and
at the same time a real team player, he loves passing the ball in the game,
loves the sense of a certain common understanding. During the last few years, I
often took him to be viewed by [Moscow clubs] CSKA and Spartak. But when Grisha
got sick, we began to pray only to save his life and health."

Simonyan’s priorities also changed when he
fell sick. He had a soccer ball in his ward and would touch it from time to
time, the object he used to spend all his time with. But according to his loved
ones, at this stage Grisha had decided to give up on his dream of playing
soccer.

Simonyan got a surprise on February 27 when
Armenian international and Spartak Moscow forward Yura Movsisyan gave him his
autographed shirt for his birthday. A month later, Simonyan received a trunk
containing the full set of equipment given by FC Terek to each of its players.

Samvel Avakian is now hopeful that Simonyan
will be able to conquer the sickness and return to the soccer field. When he sees
the man wearing the No. 59 shirt of Terek playing with the ball, says Avakian,
"I do not see a patient, I see a player who is preparing himself for Terek
soccer matches.”

"Doctors
have told me that 40 percent of the success of treatment depends on the person's
emotional state,” says Simonyan’s father Vardan, “so I now have the feeling
that Grisha is not sick at all. And although I try to forbid it, (my son does
not really listen to his father) – every day he spends from around half an hour
to an hour and a half with the ball. It is a true miracle and a real joy that
we caught the eye of a man who understands."